Mets creep back toward .500 with 4-1 win over A's

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After a long night of searching, we can call off the search party for Francisco Rodriguez's head.

The Mets closer said that it was located up his rear end after blowing a second straight save on Wednesday night, but it appeared back on top of his neck on Thursday afternoon. K-Rod had an easy 1-2-3 ninth inning to close out a fine day's work by the Mets staff in a 4-1 victory over the A's.

Chris Capuano got the ball rolling with six shutout innings highlighted by seven strikeouts of the always befuddled Oakland hitters. It was a bit surprising when Terry Collins went to the bullpen for the seventh inning, Capuano had only thrown 88 pitches, but we later learned that the lefty was experiencing discomfort on the right side of his abdomen.

Based on what happened with Ike Davis and countless other Mets in the past, we assume that this will lead to the revelation that one of the creatures from the Alien movies has made its home in Capuano's large intestine. That's a shame because he's turned in quite a respectable season for the Mets in 2011.

We kid, or at least we hope we kid about the alien infestation. Capuano's season really has been respectable, especially in light of the arm problems that he went through over the last three seasons.

The Mets have also been pretty darn respectable this season. Thursday's win means they've won four of their last six series with one push in that span, but they still remain one game under .500 after two months of winning baseball.

That tells you why you shouldn't believe anyone who tells you that it's early when a team only wins five of their first 18 games and it also tells you why the next month still looks like it is going to be full of more discussion about which players will be leaving the Mets instead of hopeful musings about a playoff run to rival the 1973 one that ended with a World Series loss to these same A's in seven games.

Maybe that will change -- David Wright has been cleared to resume baseball activities and Jose Reyes just keeps on hitting -- but we still need to see a sign from the Mets that can become something more than respectable this season.